THE TAO OF TAROT:
WALKING THE LABYRINTH

Tao: The Way. Tarot is A way. It is the language of coming back to a
Self that has been there all along. We come out of a cave of shadows and darkness, squinting our eyes in the light of clarity and make our way, stumbling, falling, awkward and joyous, back to a place we never left only to know it for the first time.

The Fool's story opens in response to the eternal call to awaken. And so we begin the journey. Along the turns of the Labyrinth 22 figures appear helping The Fool toward its Final Destination. Each subsequent encounter that The Fool comes upon represents an aspect of a smaller self that is imprisoned by false self-concept.

Much to The Fool's chagrin the sojourn unfolds, dips, weaves and disappears over and over again. And yet we continue in search of the Self that while presently elusive, is there calling us Home. Beyond all doubt, fear and foreboding, we,The Fool, may lose our way or our vision only to come to back upon the road toward our own Inevitablity.

At some point we realize that the only question that can be asked is:"Who am I?", "What is the I?" For ultimately, it is the goal of the seeker to know its Divine Self. Look toward your earliest memory. Therein lies the first chain of bondage discovered in the card of Shadow. Because it is the goal of the seeker to Know Itself, it will.

It is the objective of this rich experience through myth, fable, fact and metaphor to nuture one's mind beyond limitation and toward expansion. Here the space we believe we occupy at any given moment is not where we are at all. And so each card is a doorway, a portal that leads us back to this simple and clear understanding.

                            ...to be continued

 

© 2002 Patricia Canova.